CFP: [Science] Imperialism Under the Microscope: Disease, Medicine, and the (Neo)Colonial Gaze

full name / name of organization:

Richard Brock

contact email:

rkbrock@ucalgary.ca

Imperialism Under the Microscope: Disease, Medicine, and the (Neo)Colonial Gazeâ€“ an interdisciplinary essay collection

Among the many imports which accompanied early colonizers to theterritories they conquered was a range of epidemic diseases, moststrikingly smallpox, which decimated native communities that had neverbeen exposed to the disease and therefore had no immunity to it. Yet,despite the direction in which contagions actually flowed, the imperialgaze soon began to fix itself with terror on the native body as theoriginary source of infection and corruption. This gaze can be tracedwell beyond the mass decolonizations of the mid-twentieth century, andsurvives today in the neo-colonial health practices of many westerncountries with regard to epidemic disease, especially HIV/AIDS, one ofthe defining fears of our time.

This collection seeks to trace the flows both of contagions and culturalformulations between the West and non-West from the advent of colonialismto the present day. Contributions are invited which explore the linksbetween colonial and neo-colonial discursive formations, literary andartistic representations, medical practices, and macro-scale publichealth policies, ranging in historical focus from initial colonialcontact to contemporary settings. Especially welcome are contributionsthat consider colonial and neo-colonial approaches to epidemic diseasewith reference to one or more of the following contexts:

(a) smallpox epidemics in early colonial contact zones;

(b) malaria in colonially administered territories in the age of highimperialism

(c) contemporary First-World responses to HIV/AIDS as a â€œThird Worldâ€disease.

Papers which address the relationships between (neo-) colonial discoursesand health practices in a more general or theoretical context are alsoencouraged.

Contributors are invited to consider especially the role of metaphor ineach of these settings, examining the ways in which disease isconceptualized in metaphorical terms, and the way disease itselffunctions in turn as a socio-cultural metaphor (i.e. a reflection ofa "malaise") leading to its becoming a powerful ideological signifier.Through a consideration of the ways in which metaphorical and ideologicaldiscourses shape actual policy and practice, it is hoped that suchconstructions will form a central recurring theme uniting disparateinterdisciplinary perspectives.

In the first instance, potential contributors should submit an abstract(approx. 500 words) and one-page CV to rkbrock_at_ucalgary.ca, by October31st, 2008. Notification of acceptance will be provided after this date.Final papers, due March 31st, 2009, should be between 5000 and 7000 wordsin length.